[Chayyim ben Joseph Vital]. Sefer Otzeroth Chayyim
(BPH Ms M 371)

Manuscript on paper, 1748, semi-cursive script. With glosses on the margins, one of them by Abraham Azulai (f. 31).

Chayyim Vital (Safed 1542-1620) was the most important follower of the Safedian Kabbalist Isaac Luria. Before he met Luria, Vital had occupied himself between 1567 and 1569 with alchemy: one of his autographs contains magical practices and alchemical-metallurgical recipes.

The first printed edition of these Treasures, a compendium of Vital's writings edited by Jacob Zemah, came out in Korets in 1783. A selection of Vital's well-known Etz Chayyim came out in 1684, but none of his other works were published before 1773. His influence on Kabbalists was thus mainly exerted through the circulation of manuscript copies of his works.

The manuscript was copied in North Africa, probably in Morocco by Meir ben Isaac Margi on 16 Tammuz 5508= July 1748 in a North-African semi-cursive script. There is a Meir Margi known to have lived in Fez at this time. The decorated title page was added by an owner, Abraham Alnakar, who wrote a note in the upper margin: 'Came into my hands here in Tunis when I was in charge as an emissary from Hebron 5592' [=1772], signed Abraham al-Nakar. (Possibly Abraham ben Joseph Alnakar (1740?-after 1803), a Sephardic liturgical scholar who was born in Fez and lived in Algiers for a while). At the end of the MS there is a colophon by the scribe and two ownership notes: 1) Moses Kohen purchased the book from the scribe (Meir Margi), and he sold it to Abraham Alnakar in Fez (who supplied the title-page). The note is written and signed by Aaron ben Meir[?] Kohen-Skali; 2) Aaron Meir Uziel, an emissary from Hebron who travelled to the Maghreb to collect alms for the Jews in Hebron, purchased the MS in Tunis in 1831.